Follow-up: We’re sticking with AT&T … for now

On Monday, I detailed our plans to possibly take our wireless phone business from AT&T to T-Mobile. Intrigued by the latter’s offer to pay off early termination fees for those who want to switch carriers, I ran the numbers and came to the conclusion that we could save about $30 each month by doing so now.

But after deliberation and consultation with my lovely wife – as well as considering your comments on my post – we’ve decided to stick with AT&T for the moment. Here’s why:

• As I wrote in Monday’s entry, each member of my family is now using an iPhone 5, and if we jumped we’d need new phones and would likely choose iPhone 5s handsets. With the iPhone 6 coming later this year – and the Android universe always tempting – we’re going to wait and see what that new Apple phone looks like.

• T-Mobile’s aggressive moves are causing waves in the U.S. carrier market. AT&T has already matched many of them, and further changes may come as the year goes on. This kind of disruption is good for the consumer, and it may be worth waiting to see how this particular chess game plays out.

• T-Mobile is reportedly a takeover target by Sprint and Dish Network, which could put a sudden halt to the telco’s disruption of the industry. I’d hate to move to the company touting itself as the “UnCarrier,” only to have it return post-acquisition to business as usual.

• T-Mobile’s spectrum in Houston doesn’t do a great job of penetrating buildings, and the company’s phones struggle to hold a signal in the bowels of the Mighty Houston Chronicle Building.

With all that in mind, we’ll stay in Ma Bell 2.0′s loving arms a little while longer. We’ll revisit the issue later in the year, but I figured there was one way we could save some money now.

On Wednesday, I called and canceled the fifth line in our family plan, the one being used – or rather, going unused – by my parents. In the process, I wound up reducing my bill even more than I expected.

I began with a chat session with a rep on the AT&T website. He wound up calling me, then switching me to another rep who works in AT&T’s customer retention group. (In my move to reduce my Comcast bill, you’ll recall I had to speak with a “customer loyalty” specialist whose goal was to keep me from dropping a service.)

The retention rep tried to get me to keep the line, and instead said I was “eligible” for a $10 reduction in our family text-messaging fee, from $30 to $20. I told her that, no, I really wanted to cancel the unused line … but that I’d also take her up on the texting reduction. You know, since I was “eligible.”

She gave it to me, doubling my savings. Killing the fifth line saves $10 plus taxes, so in total we’ll save $20-plus each month, or more than $240 a year.

If you’ve been a longtime AT&T customer who’s paying $30 a month for family text-messaging, it may be worth your time to call AT&T and ask for that price to be reduced to $20. You may or may not be “eligible,” but what do you have to lose?